Customer Reviews

Bad Connection

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like the twisted, snaking and sometimes broken telephone lines Ledwidge deftly describes, Bad Connection is an intricate, interconnected and yet unpredictable thriller.

Sean Macklin is a Manhattan telephone repairman who begins, innocently at first, listening in on conversations that are ripe with insider-trading information. It's the great telephone worker details and settings that make this book so compelling. We've got underground warrens of cable below manhole covers, long-forgotten dungeons of telephone technology and cell-phones as part of the plot. Isn't it great to read a well-crafted and tight thriller that also describes a world we all know must be just behind the "danger, no entrance" sign but we've never actually seen? Cops, secret agents, Medical Examiners and the like most often the subjects of thrillers. But because they are always on TV and in movies, we know something about them and so as thriller fodder they sometimes fall flat. Not with telephone repairmen, Ledwidge has crafted a wonderful fast-paced tale from their unknown world.

Michael Ledwidge writes thrillers that are a combination of three types of stories: tough guy novels, literary novels, and morality tales. "Bad Connection" is a prime example of his particular talent for doing this. It's a story about a rich man and a poor man, both of them basically good people, but both overcome by greed. Neither of them is the violent type, but when the two of them collide as the poor man goes after what the rich one has, they both lose control of the situation. Hard men become involved and terrible trouble descends on everyone. Ledwidge is brief with character development, but this seems to be not because he is unskilled, but because he gives the reader a great deal of credit for imagination. Ledwidge lays out the cornerstones of character, deftly lays on the bricks of the plot, and allows the reader to race around the pages, wanting to know if the whole thing will collapse on someone. The plot is fast moving, the dialogue sounds real, and the climax is not what you would expect it to be. What more could you ask of a thriller?

If you like gritty, noirish fiction -- as I do -- then you've gotta read BAD CONNECTION. Set, literally, in the underbelly of New York, its hero is an everyman who seizes an opportunity that he lives to regret. This book made me think about how private telephone conversations are actually very vulnerable; in this high tech age, personal privacy is becoming a very tenuous thing. I enjoy the works of writers like Ed McBain and Jim Thompson, and Ledwidge is definitely writing in that style. An excellent read.

Bad Connection is a novel with a fascinating premise --a telephone worker listens in on the corrupt dealings of financial bigwigs in Manhattan and attempts to use the information to his own advantage. Sean Macklin is the closest thing to a hero in this basically amoral tale. He works underground in midtown Manhattan, where he repairs the phone lines for some of the world's most powerful financiers. When he overhears a conversation about an upcoming merger, he sees no harm in using that information to do some daytrading of his own. Macklin's inspiration to make extra money is not greed, but his wife, who is seriously brain damaged after a car accident. The plot thickens when Macklin continues to listen and learns of a plot that involves not merely stock manipulation but the killing of native people in Central America. Sean then turns this information over to his brother Ray, a corrupt cop. From here, we have a complex but well-developed story, as Sean, Ray, the callous CEO of a pharmaceutical company and his ex-CIA henchman all collide over this volatile bit of information. I really enjoyed most of this book, but found the last quarter of it or so a little over-the-top in its action and violence. Although Bad Connection deals with moral issues, it doesn't exactly have a moral, being ultimately too cynical for that. Michael Ledwidge has an exceptional talent for writing clear, taut and elegantly descriptive prose. Although this is a good book, I think he is capable of even better ones.

This was a fast, tense, twisting tale, all the more exciting because it was written by a guy with inside information. Mr. Ledwidge seems destined for a long career in this genre. This would make a terrific movie. His characters come alive, his dialogue is crisp, and his action sequences are not for the faint of heart...everything the action flick devotee loves. I already have the lead actors chosen...

Bad Connection by Michael Ledwidge is a crime fiction not to be missed. A real compelling page turner.

I love reading anything that sounds true-to-life and Bad Connection is exactly that.

A thrilling story about a telephone repairman that accidentally overhears a business conversation that helps him make a killing in the stock market.

Trouble soon follows after overhearing a follow-up conversation involving the world of finance.

Some of my favorite books of fiction are that of the powerful and rich. Bad Connection is everything a wonderful mystery should be!

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I enjoy crime fiction that takes unusual twists and turns. Michael Ledwidge's BAD CONNECTION is one such book. Sean Macklin is a Manhattan telephone repairman with a disabled wife and a genuine need for money. While working a telephone line, he overhears a business conversation, and Sean uses his accidentally acquired insider information to make a killing in the stock market. Realizing that he's stumbled onto an easy way to gather the money he and his wife need for a move to the South, he continues eavesdropping on movers and shakers in the world of finance. Seans plans grow complicated when he overhears a most sinister conversation. He attempts to turn that information over to his brother, a cop. Sean's brother has other plans for the info, and the plot begins to take unexpected twists and turns. BAD CONNECTION becomes a morality tale on greed. It is an excellent book, and I recommend it highly.

Bad Connection is a journey into a territory where things are dark, funny, tense and exciting. It's a terrific suspense novel that won't let you down. Ledwidge is a wonderful new voice in crime fiction. He's right up there with Leonard, Connelly and Lehane.

Like "Narrowback," "Bad Connection" portrays a bloody Newtonian world of action and reaction as each of Ledwidge's flawed or damaged characters spar with each other.

Sean Macklin is a solid citizen - a telephone repairman - who's carrying both the guilt of putting his wife into a coma in a road accident and the exhaustive/expensive effort of looking after her 24/7. He sees a solution to his problems when, tapping into a telephone line to diagnose a problem, he overhears an investment banker talking about an upcoming acquisition. Armed with this insider trading knowledge and further, subsequent taps, he quickly turns $5,000 into $100,000.

Well experienced by now, he shifts his tap to the direct line of Brent - the hard-charging, arrogant young CEO of a major chemical company. Macklin gets more than he bargained for, however, when he tapes a conversation between Guest - an ex-CIA fix-it man - and Brent, talking about a $2 million bribe to a local governor in South America for murdering 30-40 environmental protestors. Brent, desperate to maintain himself in the heady world of private jets and trophy girlfriends, approves the bribe. Macklin turns the tape over to his brother Ray in the NYPD, unaware that Ray is living in a pressure cooker himself. Ray decides to blackmail Brent with the help of his broken-down old buddy Scully. Guest, of course, tails Ray and Scully after the payoff and predictably nasty repercussions follow.

Macklin's use of arcane telephone procedures to battle Guest and Brent makes "Bad Connection" an interesting and enjoyable thriller. I gave Ledwidge's first novel "Narrowback" four stars but think this one is worth one less. The sense of collective doom surrounding the characters in "Narrowback" was more convincing and I found the story grittier and more compelling. Nonetheless, Bad Connection is a worthwhile, well-plotted, entertaining and light read.

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I enjoy crime fiction that takes unusual twists and turns. Michael Ledwidge's BAD CONNECTION is one such book. Sean Macklin is a Manhattan telephone repairman with a disabled wife and a genuine need for money. While working a telephone line, he overhears a business conversation, and Sean uses his accidentally acquired insider information to make a killing in the stock market. Realizing that he's stumbled onto an easy way to gather the money he and his wife need for a move to the South, he continues eavesdropping on movers and shakers in the world of finance. Seans plans grow complicated when he overhears a most sinister conversation. He attempts to turn that information over to his brother, a cop. Sean's brother has other plans for the info, and the plot begins to take unexpected twists and turns. BAD CONNECTION becomes a morality tale on greed. It is an excellent book, and I recommend it highly.